This Here...
...the material manifestation of enthusiasm (A Gilliland)
EGOTORIAL
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MOCKINGBIRD II
So, back I have to go to appear suitably contrite at court in
Jonesborough on February 18th, once again facing the
possibility of jail.
then getting your ass outta there. The deal dropped the
lesser charges (driving without tags or insurance) and
slapped a $25 fine (plus costs, which bumped it to $240) on
driving without a license, though admittedly this came with
6 months unsupervised probation, which just means that if
Im daft enough to get caught down there doing something
I shouldnt before mid-August I will be seeing the inside of
the pokey. All in all, a result.
Id traveled down Monday (Presidents Day) having
booked a Greyhound a couple weeks before which gives
you the best price ($52). I checked the commuter bus
schedules assiduously, finding that the last bus up to DC at
6:50am ran on federal holidays, but in a typical fuck this
start to the trip the fucker never showed. BB hates driving,
so a quick call to my local friendly airport taxi scored me a
ride in time for the 10am departure, albeit at a cost of $100
for him rather than $5 for the bus.
Greyhound buses are not ideal forms of travel (theres less
seat room than a coach class airline) but at least the driver
usually gives you a couple minutes at most stops to have a
smoke. We were delayed a bit at Wytheville VA (coldest
stop en route, consisting of a shed, a parking lot and a
McDonalds, and inevitably the 40 minute dinner
layover) waiting for a connecting bus transfer passenger, so
didnt arrive in Johnson City (nearest stop to Jonesborough)
until 9:15pm or so, about a half hour late. Being the
prepared type (on a good day), Id Googled up hotels near
the bus station, and was pleased to find a Hampton Inn
within a block or two. Although theyre a bit pricier than a
budget place like Days Inn, their service is usually well
good and, more importantly, the beds are really comfy.
Resigned to missing most of Heroes for the week, I
presented myself at the Greyhound ticket counter to
confirm my earlier
research, enquiring in
which direction the
Hampton might be. Upon
getting the pointer, I
turned to head out and a
local bird who apparently
hangs out there remarked
Are you walking?. Well,
yes I am, since its less
than a mile, right? More
like two or three miles...
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Billy offers to run me over to the hotel later, and on the way
there just happens to mention, useful bloke that he is, that
he can fix the generator while Im away, so I give him a
padlock key to unchain it from the van and am , if not well
pleased, feeling a bit better about things.
RASSLIN
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Randy Orton
WWE often gets a bad rap for some of its angles, but the
latest groan-inducing complaints have been over the heel
we all love to hate, Randy Orton, who, in putting the boot
literally and figuratively to members of the McMahon clan,
is claiming to suffer from the (kayfabe) mental illness
Intermittent Explosive Disorder, or IED, which is
supposedly why he kicks people in the head when they piss
him off. Surely the writers could have been sly enough to
come up with something which could have abbreviated to
IUD, which would have been much more knowing since
Orton is such a cunt. (Remarks like that are why you wont
be seeing me writing a column at Online World of Wrestling
anytime alongside the Kingfish Katz any time soon.) Arnie
told me back at CfAg that Orton was unpopular with the
rest of the boys in the locker room, and I wouldnt be
surprised if that was still the case, since he is such a
thorough heel that Id think there have to be shoot elements
in his in-ring character. Comparing his style with others,
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being discussed, Tenay did not stick up for him, so its not
the case that Don has suddenly decided that he should be
kissing up to Kurt Angle for whatever reason. Kind of
difficult to see where they might be going with this.
TUNES! (REDUX)
Like Van Halen, I the problem I have with this is that the
voting methods would seem to have picked up a bands
signature song in a lot of cases rather than a possibly
better one. Run DMCs cover/collaboration of this brought
Tyler, Perry & Co right back into the limelight, but half of
their catalog is better than this. Draw the Line, Mama
Kin and Train Kept ARollin all come instantly to mind.
#7: NIRVANA (Smells Like Teen Spirit)
Never been a big fan, to be honest, always thought they
were hugely overrated, but I do like almost everything
Dave Grohl has done since. (The Foo Fighters made #26
with Everlong - a great song!)
#6: THE WHO (Wont Get Fooled Again)
Undoubtedly great, and of course my #1 band, but again
the victim of signature disease. My Generation appears
at #37, but where is what has often been described as the
perfect rock riff, Cant Explain? Its been said that all of
the truly great rock songs are just reworkings of the Cant
Explain riff, including of course the #2 greatest band of all
time by a whisker and Clash City Rockers.
#5: METALLICA (Enter Sandman)
Once they went global with this, the inevitable accusations
from the diehard metal fans that the band had sold out
began. If theres anything worse than a whiny metal fan its
probably a whiny sf fan. Again an excellent song, but The
Unforgiven is still my Metallica favorite. I almost count
them as a Brit band since they were influenced so heavily
by the likes of Motrhead, Black Sabbath, Budgie and Led
Zep.
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LOCO CITATO
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[[Which is why the rest of us get twice as many tickets were all having to pick up Lees share...]]
From: garcia@computerhistory.org
Chris Garcia writes:
February 14
John Purcell writes:
[...]
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Cassells Dict of
Slang gives
copacetic/copasetic/
copasetty, 1)
Great write-up of the rasslin' babes. I had not realized how
excellent/1st rate 2)
much my little comment spurred you on, but I am glad it
confidential/secret
did. You certainly know much more about this than I do. so
&
a feast of poss
thank you for sharing your insights. I almost forgot to
The map is not the territory...
etyms,
from Chinook,
mention earlier in this loc the NWWL, which is truly a
Ital,
French,
or
unique sporting event. I assume that you know all about it,
Yiddish, or the crazed
Nic, but if any of your readers don't know of this, all they
the
cop
is
on
the
settee
ie
asleep/not
noticing, so the
have to do is google in "NWWL" and click on it. That is all I
crooks
can
get
on
with
their
aims
&
objectives
- folk
am going to say.
etymology at its most OTT.
[[Ahem. Indeed. But in the interests of work safety and all
100fers - Pablo Lennis was up to 252 in Nov 08. Last dead
that jazz (or in this case jizz?) I feel rather duty bound to
point out that John refers to the Naked Womens Wrestling tree The Mentor I have is 95, but Ive a feeling Ron Clarke
did some more online-only ishes? Braziers Title ? got to 100
League. Thanks for the hook in your loc on #9 tho: I had
or thereabouts.
intended to write about TNA anyway, but concentrating
lastishs column on the knockouts did seem a good place to [[Steve, you raise a point here I think. When were talking
start...]]
about 100-ish veterans, is it implied that were talking
about dead tree? For me, that answer has to be yes. With
And I believe that is all I am to say in this loc. Enjoyed the
the general shift to online publishing, 100+ runs of actual
zine mightily, Nic. If you do make it down to this neck of
paper fanzines are becoming the fannish equivalent of Cal
the woods, make it over the weekend of August 7-8, 2009.
Ripkens Iron Man streak (but lets also bear in mind that
Here's their website: www.navasotabluesfest.org
John Hertz Vanamonde will probably break 1,000). The
This year that is the weekend before Armadillocon (Aug.
gorgeous pouting L Edwards has undoubtedly consigned
14-16) over in Austin, so maybe I can hit both this year.
100 zines worth of stuff to the ether of LiveJournal, and
Keep your fingers crossed.
will perhaps be highly annoyed to be mentioned in the same
[...]
sentence as Emerald City (which is of course why I did it),
but does that count? Now we start getting into the more
contentious area of value judgements - is, for example, an
From: 4 Nowell Place, Almondbury, Huddersfield HD5
80-issue run of Apparatchik intrinsically better than a 128PB, UK
issue run of Attitude simply because of sheer weight of
February 18
numbers?...]]
Steve Sneyd writes:
Thoughts of such antiquities reminds me of an utterly
[...]
trivial personal anniversary - 69 is when I 1st came across
fanzines - Ordrey Waltons Wadezine and Free Orbit, sove
Mark Plummer, to abbreviate with glazed eyes, cdve
notched up 40 uncore years. Where does the time go type
used a lovely acron came across somewhere recently clichs apply?!
MEGO - My Eyes Glaze Over.
The Platonic etc discussion causes recall of great Count
Korzybski, Van Vogts guru, & his Null-A comment the
map is not the territory, essential advice for any rambler.
Kent is to get a 33x lifesize white horse statue at Ebbs Fleet,
apparently, so thatll be, not a real, but a hyperreal horse.
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10
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From: earlkemp@citilink.net
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From: john.sila@virgin.net
February 28
Uncle Johnny Nielsen-Hall writes:
[[Of course you would have you daft aporth, because I did
say that my court date was February 18th, so plenty of
time to get #10 done and out. If youre like me and
egoscanned thish first, Mockingbird II tells you how
Jonesborough went, and it wasnt a massacre. Moving the
van to Tennessee in the first place, and sorry if this wasnt
clear, was basically to give me somewhere to stay while
working there, either on my own bit or, as it turns out,
possibly for someone else...]]
Would that I could share your Rasslin enthusiasms - and I
could for some of those women I expect, but I don't want to
see them wrestling other women, dark pervert that I am,
just some poor weedy male who hasn't got a hope. Well,
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there you are, now you know. I hope that doesn't come as
too much of a shock or disappointment to anybody.
[...]
[[Ah, Johnny old chap, I suspect youd have loved Chyna
(Joanie Laurer) who used to rassle for WWF - who actually
beat all the guys there (notably one of my perennial
favorites Jeff Jarrett, who reportedly asked for and got
$300,000 for a clean loss to a woman) and held the
Intercontinental Championship for a while. Mind you,
most of those blokes werent exactly weedy. She was the
real-life main squeeze of Triple-H for several years, but has
later said that her decision to leave the then WWF was
made easier by the fact that he decided that knobbing the
boss daughter (Stephanie McMahon) was a better bet...]]
From: srjeffery@aol.com
March 1
Steve Jeffery writes:
Belated and apologeticthanx for This Here 10, which
arrived - and was read - a couple of weeks back now, but
not relied to while Vikki and I struggled (and do still) with
passing each other colds and other assorted lurgies like a
viral fueled game of pass the parcel.
[[I did kind of wonder, since youre usually pretty quick of
the mark with a loc, but no apology necessary...]]
OK, surely that photo on the front page has to be
Photoshopped. Given the reception to the Dixie Chicks and
to Neil Young's 'Let's Impeach the President' on the last
CSNY reunion tour from rabid Republicans, a sign like that
adorning Dubya's own birthplace would probably last
about 5 seconds before being torn down or vandalized.
[[Got it in one Steve-o. As I mentioned earlier, there are
several versions of this pic...]]
I was trying to work out where you were in Mockingbird. If
Bristol refers toBristol, VA, it's sort of familar, from
sometrips I did for work for a company there around 10-12
years back. (There's another Bristol in PA, which has the
tiniest airport I've ever seen, which is smaller than even the
Oxford bus station in Gloucester Green.) I think I may even
have stayed in the Bristol, VA Days Inn for a week or so,
although I can't recall if this is the one we arrived at in
February and were promptlysnowed in for the next three
days, having to negotiate with the company we'd come to
visit via the hotel phone and fax since we couldn't even get
the car out of the car park, never mind the five miles down
the road to the factory. But again, assuming this is the place,
I remember the Cracker Barrel, and some of the biggest and
most calorific and cholesterol-richSunday breakfasts I've
ever encountered.
[[Bristol straddles the Virginia/Tennessee line. The
greyhound bus driver likes to remark as we pull in and out
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Jackie Pallo
[[I love the way a lot of the old Brit names Id forgotten
keep coming up, in this case Jackie Pallo, who was a great
heel in the mold of Curt Hennig...]]
You were talking with John Purcell about impressive music
festival line ups. I'm jealous that I've never seen Floyd live
in their heyday, though I have a video of their Dark Side of
the Moon show at Earl's Court, which is hugely impressive,
especially the spectacular lighting.
Apart from a couple of Reading Festivals (when it at
Reading, and not, for some oscure reason, not half in Leeds,
and when it was a proper "Jazz, Blues and Rock" festival
13
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15
From: dave_redd@hotmail.com
From:
claire.fishlifter@googlemail.com
March 8
Claire Brialey writes:
Since we were talking about
fannish identity, I feel the need to
hand over to one of our regular
characters:
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17
often commented that hes not like that at home. We all still
believe, however, that James Bacon is.
Steve Jeffery may well have hit on the reason that Mark and
I dont use one another as characters very much; in further
demonstration of our accord, and in response to Marks
own letter in #10, I will note that I am very happy to
continue our fruitful partnership of bringing more little
fanzines into the world rather than anything else. In this
context, though, I would also note that many people who
have children tend to refute the claim that the main part of
the fun is actually making them, rather than dealing with
the end product or anything that happens after that; I
wonder how many people who produce fanzines enjoy the
act of creation more than engaging with the response?
Equally, I wonder how many people really do produce
fanzines as some used to assert in order to have
something to trade and thus avoid having to write letters of
comment. In these days of efanzines theres no longer the
risk for most titles of being struck off mailing lists, but the
question does remain as you quoted Lilian Edwards as
stating of whether people want to keep their own writing,
and indeed control over the editing of it, for their own
fanzines.
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Finally, then, I see your Max Miller chicken joke and raise
you this, quoted in Guy Brownings rather splendid piece of
what would be fan writing if only he were a fan, Maps of My
Life: Why did the illegitimate chicken cross the road twice?
Because it was a double-crossing bastard.
[[Re-raise: Why did the pervert cross the road? Because his
dick was stuck in the chicken...]]
WAHF
A guilt-ridden Brad Foster,
bearing fillos; Arnie Katz (with
Idle Minds #2 pdf); Bruce
Gillespie (with Steam Engine
Time #10 pdf); Robert Sabella
(Visions of Paradise #138 link);
Robert Lichtman (I owe you
locs up the wazoo... - ouch!)
INDULGE ME...
Silicon.
MIRANDA
THIS HERE... is written, edited and produced by: Nic Farey
Published by Seven Views of Jerusalem in the US and
Fishlifter Press in the UK.
PO Box 178, Saint Leonard, MD 20685, USA
Email: thishere@mac.com
Print copies of This Here... are limited. If you got one, its
likely for one of the following reasons:
You have locced, or I think you probably will
You also send me actual paper copies of stuff
I heard you like actual paper copies of stuff
I like you, and I know where you live
I can think of no other way of pissing you off from here
Youre mentioned in here somewhere
Requests for a print copy will be treated sympathetically, or
thrown away, depending on how I feel that day...
By the Grace of Burns well also be at www.efanzines.com .
Art credits: Cover cartoon nicked from Rhymes With
Orange by Hilary Price; Tunes logo by Steve Stiles;
Cartoon on p7 by Alexis Gilliland, p19 Rotsler
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thishere@mac.com
PO Box 178
Saint Leonard MD 20685
USA
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